Gates says voice software spells death of PBX

Gates characterized the change as bringing software innovation to the business phone.

"This is not just a technology change, but a change in the business structure so the opportunity for people to come in and do new things is much larger. In the older world, everything came in a vertically integrated communications stack."

He said the classic vertical structure would turn on its side and become a horizontal structure incorporating phones, applications, open communications platforms and standards such as SIP.

Gates cited a Microsoft study conducted by Forrester Research that showed a 500% ROI in unified communications over a three-year period based on productivity and other savings including the use of existing infrastructure such as network connections and computers.

Raikes said companies would see huge productivity gains by giving users a single identity and presence capabilities within a unified communications platform.

"Our research shows that the average information worker spends 37 minutes per week in voice mail jail or playing phone tag and that adds up to more than 30 hours of lost productivity per year. But by using identity and presence at the core you recapture that lost time," he said.

Raikes said companies are doing that today and that Microsoft has 150 customers using VoIP and click-to-call features. He said 50 partners Tuesday also introduced new products and services to go along with OCS and Office Communicator, and 800 partners have obtained specialized unified communications training to help support rollouts.

"The era of dialing blind, the era of playing phone tag, the era of a voice mail jail, the era of disconnected communications, that era is ending. A new way to communicate starts today," Raikes said.